Tetris at 30: a history of the world's most successful game

On this day, 30 years ago, during the height of the Cold War, a Russian
programmer first released the code for a game he called Tetris. It would
eventually cause a worldwide scramble for rights and royalties that would
last over a decade. We look at the history of the world's most successful
computer game

1984 – Alexey Pajitnov creates Tetris while working as a programmer in the USSR, using a Russian computer called the Electronica 60. The name was a portmanteau of tetra, the Greek word for four, and tennis, his favourite sport. He shares the code with friends, who port it to the IBM PC, and it spreads like wildfire. Soon it is being played all over the Soviet Bloc.

Pajitnov would later say: "The program wasn't complicated. There was no scoring, no levels. But I started playing and I couldn't stop.”

Playing Tetris in MOMA, New York

1986 – Tetris appears in the West for the first time. It had made its way to Hungary, where programmers created versions for the Apple II and Commodore 64. It was then spotted by British software company Andromeda.

They tried to contact Pajitnov to secure the PC rights, which started a long and protracted negotiation with the Academy of Sciences.

In the meantime, the company went ahead and sold-on the rights to Spectrum Holobyte, who launched an IBM PC version in 1987. Soon after came commercial versions for the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST and Apple II, all made possible with various licences and sub-licences. All these deals were based on uncertain foundations; the legal situation was far from clear, thanks in large part to the difficulty of doing business deals in the Soviet Union.

At one point a representative from Andromeda and games publisher Henk Rogers both flew out to Moscow to try and secure a water-tight deal for the rights. Rogers ended up with the rights for handheld versions, while Andromeda retained rights for arcade versions – just in time for the demise of the games arcade, thanks in no small part to devices like Nintendo’s Game Boy.

At the same time, Nintendo offered a huge but undisclosed sum to Russia for the console rights. It secured them, and promptly demanded that Atari destroy its remaining cartridges.

1988 – In response to this fight for rights, the USSR created an organisation called Elektronorgtechnica to market the game and sell permission to create versions. But because Pajitnov had been working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences at the time, none of the profits were passed to him.

1989 – The Game Boy version of Tetris is released: the most popular version of all. More than 35 million copies are sold.

1991 – Pajitnov moves to the USA, with help from Rogers, who he had befriended when they met in Moscow during rights negotiations.

1996 –Rogers and Pajitnov form The Tetris Company to sell and protect the rights to the game. This was the first time that Pajitnov saw any royalties. Initially, a now-privatised Elektronorgtechnica was a partner, but the pair later bought out all remaining rights.

"Alexey Pajitnov is perhaps the most famous game designer in the world, yet he's always been good-natured and philosophical about being denied the profits from his game," said Rogers at the time. "After 10 years of being left out of Tetris licensing deals arranged by a government that no longer exists, modest Alexey is finally getting his due."

Pajitnov also began working for Microsoft in 1996, working on various games groups until 2005.

2009 – Apple pulls a game called Tris from the App Store after a complaint from The Tetris Company. To this day the company aggressively protects its brand with legal action.